_Flaker inquiring of returning hunters about the game and the
feeding grounds._
_Strangers coming with gifts to get Flaker's advice._

XXXIX

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Think of as many simple ways of catching fish as you can. How do
you think the Cave-men fished?

What do you think people mean when they say that some one is living
a "hand-to-mouth" life?

How do you think people learned to dry meat, fish, or fruit?

Why would the people honor the one who taught them to preserve food
by drying it?

Can you think of anything which could be used as food when it was
boiled, that would not be a good food eaten raw?

Name a bitter vegetable. What happens to the water in which a
bitter vegetable is boiled?

Name a sweet vegetable. What happens to the water in which a sweet
vegetable is boiled?

What do you mean by "parboiling?"

Do you think the Cave-men will learn how to boil food?

_How the Cave-men Learned to Boil and to Dry Foods_

Again the salmon feast came, and again the neighboring clans camped at
the rapids. This time they caught more salmon than they had ever
caught before. And this was the summer that the Cave-men began to dry
salmon and to fish with harpoons.

It was Willow-grouse who thought of drying salmon, and carrying it to
the caves. She remembered the berries dried on the bushes, and the
dried meat she found in a tree. No doubt all the Cave-men had eaten
dried meat many times before. Often the Cave-men left strips of meat
hanging from the trees.

Anybody could leave meat which he did not care to eat. Anybody could
eat meat which had been dried in the sun. But not every one was bright
enough to think of drying meat.

Chew-chew had never dried meat, nor had any of the women. It was
enough for them to prepare the meat which they needed day by day. Few
of the people ever thought of laying up stores for the morrow. They
lived a "hand-to-mouth" life.

But Willow-grouse remembered the famines. She knew food was scarce in
the early spring. And when she saw the river full of salmon, she
thought of the sun-dried meat.

And so Willow-grouse caught some salmon and cleaned them and hung them
on the branches of a tree. And when they had dried, she took them down
and the Cave-men said that dried salmon were good. And so all the
people caught salmon and dried them in the sun.

The first few days the peopl